The family of Laylah Washington took to Facebook live with a heart-wrenching video inside the hospital room the day after she was shot in the head during an apparent road rage incident with the hopes it will help find the suspects involved.
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VIDEOS: THE AFTERMATH OF VIOLENT CRIME
3 shot during vigil in South Memphis | 0:11

At least three people were injured after a shooting in South Memphis Monday night. The shooting took place during a vigil for a teenager slain last year, but Memphis police say the shooting may not have been related to the event.
Daniel Connolly/The Commercial Appeal

Thomas Scott, 35, who lives in the neighborhood near Lauderdale and Vance where one person was killed early Thursday, said “We’ve got to come together and try to quit all this foolishness."
Katie Fretland/The Commercial Appeal

Candlelight vigil for homicide victim continues after being interrupted by gunfire

Sgt. Calvin Wilhite Jr.

3 shot during vigil in South Memphis

Vigil shooting stirs residents' anger

MPD investigate homicide in Whitehaven

Vigil for shooting victim Devin Wilson

Memphis hairdresser found shot to death in park

Father discusses slain daughters

Double homicide in Hickory Hill

Fatal hit and run crash in Parkway Village

Fatal shooting at The Reserve at Mt. Moriah

Fatal shooting at Fox Meadows apt

Woman shot in South Memphis barricade

MPD considering a change in homicide tally

Man found dead in Westwood

Body found in East Memphis

Possible body found in Memphis

Robbery-related homicides spiked in 2016

South Memphis homicide

Musician Ekpe Abioto speaks during a violence rally in Frayser

Anti-violence rally held in Frayser

Kiara Tatum Candlelight

Family members talk about the loss of Kiara Tatum

Neighbor near homicide scene asks for unity

Memphis mayor Jim Strickland on crime

Memphis Breaks Homicide Record

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Tensia Lacy, Jaquanda Houston and Endeia Williams prepare to ride in a limo during the "Ride of Tears" that started at the Liberty Bowl and moved throughout the city calling for an end to the violence June 21, 2017.(Photo: Brad Vest / The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

Being that he is a former gang leader, Lane can relate — which is why his organization is attacking that epidemic through building relationships with youths who are likely to succumb to it.

Those would be males aged 13 to 23, males trapped in communities where homicides are six times the national average, and where the drug trade and gangs have rewritten the rules of normalcy to the point where they either see violence as a rite of passage or as a fixture that they’re bound to brush up against.

Yet while Lane’s program, which is funded through public and private dollars, has shown some success — it helped reduce violent crime in Frayser by 54 percent and in South Memphis by 23 percent during its first two years — the program struggles to find adequate resources and mentors.

And it's struggling because, unlike Lane and others, too many people are content to view Memphis’ violence epidemic as confined to certain areas instead of seeing it as a threat to the entire city.

That must change.

For that to happen, the city must work to reverse the poverty and social isolation that are fueling the gun violence epidemic. Parents who work numerous jobs — many of which are part time and temporary — likely have a tough time convincing their children that a job that doesn’t pull them out of poverty is a better choice than what the street offers.

Even if that street work requires a bloody, bullet-ridden resume.

Secondly, everyone must realize that neglecting to adequately fund successful violence-prevention programs, or to deal with the structural problems behind the violence, is to neglect the city’s future.

Census figures show people aged 20 to 24 make up Memphis’ largest age group, or 8.5 percent of the total.

Yet Memphis also has the highest percentage of disconnected youths — 21.6 percent. That means that more than 1 in 5 people aged 16 to 24 are either not attending school, have dropped out of school or are unemployed.

In other words, they’re rudderless — and ripe for finding their moorings with a gang or a gun.

Certainly, disconnected youths play a role in fueling the violence rate. And the violence feeds into an epidemic that could hobble Memphis’ future at a time when it needs more young people contributing to the community and paying taxes — versus being killed, or imprisoned, or choosing gang life over school or college life.

So now is not the time for programs such as 901 Bloc Squad to be grappling for resources. This is a time for the city to replicate such efforts, as well as make urgent new pushes to deal with the poverty and underlying issues feeding the violence.

But, most of all, the healthy percentage of young people here ought to compel everyone to see them as part of the city’s potential.

It should compel everyone to view the rampant violence as an epidemic that threatens Memphis’ destiny, and not just the destiny of South Memphis, Frayser or other communities that are struggling with this scourge.

A scourge that can imperil the city’s future — as well as the future of its young people.